Istanbul: The Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) announced on Sunday from northern Iraq that it is withdrawing all its forces from Trkiye. “We are withdrawing all our forces in Trkiye that pose a risk of clashes or are vulnerable to potential provocations,” the group said in a statement carried by Turkish television news channel NTV.

According to Namibia Press Agency, Omer Celik, spokesperson for Trkiye’s ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP), emphasized that the dismantling of the PKK’s elements within Trkiye and its armed structures across the region remains the core agenda of the “terror-free Trkiye” process. The PKK, which has waged an insurgency against the Turkish state since 1984, announced in May its decision to disarm and disband following a call from its jailed leader Abdullah Ocalan to end the armed struggle. The long-running conflict has claimed over 40,000 lives.

The first group of PKK fighters laid down and burned their arms in July, marking the start of the disarmament process. Ocalan, who founded the PKK in 1978, has been held in near-total isolation on Imrali Island in the Marmara Sea off Istanbul since 1999. The PKK is designated as a terrorist organization by Trkiye, the United States, and the European Union.